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.9 A5 HISTORIC 

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DOUBTS 



RELATIVE TO 



BY 



RICHARD WHATELY, D.D., 

Late Principal of Saint Alban's Hall, and Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford 
now Archbisiiop of Dublin. 



" Is not tiie same reason available in theology and in politics ? . , „ Will you 
follow truth but to a certain point ? " 

Vindicatioyi ofMiUiral Society, htj a Laie Moble Writer. 

V — ■ 



SECOND AMERICAN, 
FROM THE FOURTH LONDON EDITION. 



BOSTON: 

JAMES M UN ROE AND COMPANY. 
1843. 



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PREFACE. 



Several of the readers of this little work have derived 
much amusement from the mistakes of others respecting 
its nature and object. It has been by some represented 
as a serious attempt to inculcate universal scepticism ; 
while others have considered it as a jeu d'esprit, &c. 
The author does not however design to entertain his 
readers with accounts of the mistakes which have arisen 
respecting it ; because many of them, he is convinced, 
would be received with incredulity ; and he could not, 
without an indelicate exposure of individuals, verify his 
anecdotes. 

But some sensible readers have complained of the 
difficulty of determining what they are to believe. Of 
the existence of Buonaparte, indeed, they are fully con- 
vinced ; nor, if it were left doubtful, would any impor- 
tant results ensue ; but if they can give no satisfactory 
reason for their conviction, how can they know, it is 
asked, that they may not be mistaken as to other points 
of greater consequence, on which they are no less fully 
convinced, but on which all men are not agreed 1 The 
Author has accordingly been solicited to endeavour to 
frame some canons which may furnish a standard for 
determining what evidence is to be received. This he 
conceives to be impracticable, except to that extent to 
which it is accomplished by a sound system of logic. 



IV PREFACE. 

The full accomplishment of it, indeed, would confer on 
man the unattainable attribute of infallibility. 

But the difficulty complained of he conceives to arise 
from their misstating the grounds of their own conviction. 
They are convinced, indeed, and perhaps with very suffi- 
cient reason ; but they imagine this reason to be a dif- 
ferent one from what it is. The evidence to which they 
have assented is applied to their minds in a different 
manner from that in which they believe it is, and sup- 
pose it ought to be, applied. And when challenged to 
defend and justify their own belief, they ^^feel at a loss, 
because they are attempting to maintain a position which 
is not in fact that in which their force lies. 

For a developement of the nature, the consequences, 
and the remedies of this mistake, the reader is referred 
to ^' Hints on Inspiration," p. 30 — 46. If such a de- 
velopment is to be found in other books, the Author 
of the following pages at least has never chanced to meet 
with any attempt of the kind. 

It is only necessary to add, that as this work first ap- 
peared in the year 1819, many things are spoken of in 
the present tense to which the past would now be appli- 
cable. 

The Postscript was added to the third edition, which 
was published soon after the accounts of Buonaparte's 
death reached us. 



HISTORIC DOUBTS 



RELATIVE TO 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE 



Long as the public attention has been occupied by the 
extraordinary personage from whose arabition we are sup- 
posed to have so narrowly escaped, the subject seems to 
have lost scarcely any thing of its interest. We are still 
occupied in recounting the exploits, discussing the charac- 
ter, inquiring into the present situation, and even conjec- 
turing as to the future prospects of Napoleon Buonaparte. 

Nor is this at all to be wondered at, if we consider the 
very extraordinary nature of those exploits, and of that 
character ; their greatness and extensive importance, as 
well as the unexampled strangeness of the events, and 
also, that strong additional stimulant, the mysterious un- 
certainty that hangs over the character of the man. If 
it be doubtful whether any history (exclusive of such as 
is avowedly fabulous) ever attributed to its hero such a 
series of wonderful achievements compressed into so small 
a space of time, it is certain that to no one were ever as- 
signed so many dissimilar characters. 

It is true indeed that party prejudices have drawn a 
favourable and an unfavourable portrait, of almost every 
1 



2 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

eminent man ; but amidst all the diversities of coloring, 
something of the same general outline is always distin- 
guishable. And even the virtues in the one description, 
bear some resemblance to the vices of another ; rashness, 
for instance, will be called courage, or courage, rashness ; 
heroic firmness, and obstinate pride, will correspoiad in 
the two opposite descriptions ; and in some leading fea- 
tures, both will agree. Neither the friends nor the ene- 
mies, of Philip of Macedon, or of Julius Csesar, ever 
questioned their courage, or their military skill. 

With Buonaparte however it has been otherwise. This 
obscure Corsican adventurer, a man, according to some, 
of extraordinary talents and courage, according to others, 
of very moderate abilities, and a rank coward, advanced 
rapidly in the French army, obtained a high command, 
gained a series of important victories, and, elated by suc- 
cess, embarked in an expedition against Egypt; which 
was planned and conducted, according to some, with the 
most consummate skill, according to others, with the 
utmost wildness and folly : he was unsuccessful however ; 
and leaving the army of Egypt in a very distressed situa- 
tion, he returned to France, and found the nation, or at 
least the army, so favourably disposed towards him, that 
he was enabled, with the utmost ease, to overthrow the 
existing government, and obtain for himself the supreme 
power ; at first under the modest appellation of Consul, 
but afterwards with the more sounding title of Emperor. 
While in possession of this power, he overthrew the most 
powerful coalitions of the other European states against 
him ; and though driven from the sea by the British fleets, 
overran nearly the whole continent, triumphant : finishing 
a war, not unfrequently in a single campaign, he entered 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 3 

the capitals of most of the hostile potentates, deposed and 
created kings at his pleasure, and appeared the virtual sove- 
reign of the chief part of the continent, from the frontiers 
of Spain to those of Russia. Even those countries we 
find him invading with prodigious armies, defeating their 
forces, penetrating to their capitals, and threatening their 
total subjugation. But at Moscow his progress is stopped : 
a winter of unusual severity, cooperating with the efforts 
of the Russians, totally destroys his enormous host ; and 
the German sovereigns throw off the yoke, and combine 
to oppose him. He raises another vast army, which is 
also ruined at Leipsic : and again another, with w^iich? 
like a second Antaeus, he for some time maintains himself 
in France ; but is finally defeated, deposed, and banished 
to the island of Elba, of which the sovereignty is conferred 
on him. Thence he returns, in about nine months, at 
the head of 600 men, to attempt the deposition of King 
Louis, who had been peaceably recalled ; the French 
nation declare in his favour, and he is reinstated without 
a struggle. He raises another great army to oppose the 
allied powers, which is totally defeated at Waterloo : he 
is a second time deposed, surrenders to the British, and 
is placed in confinement at the island of St. Helena, 
Such is the outline of the eventful history presented to 
us ; in the detail of which, however, there is almost every 
conceivable variety of statement ; while the motives and 
conduct of the chief actor are involved in still greater 
doubt, and the subject of still more eager controversy. 

In the midst of these controversies, the preliminary 
question, concerning the existence of this extraordinary 
personage, seems never to have occurred to any one as 
a matter of doubt ; and to show even the smallest hesita- 



4 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

tion in admitting it, would probably be regarded as ao 
excess of scepticism ; on the ground that this point has 
always been taken for granted by the disputants on all 
sides, being indeed implied by the very nature of their 
disputes. 

But is it in fact found that undisputed points are always 
such as have been the most carefully examined as to the 
evidence on which they rest ? that facts or principles 
which are taken for granted, without controversy, as the 
common basis of opposite opinions, are always themselves 
established on sufficient grounds? On the contrary, is 
not any such fundamental point, from the very circum- 
stance of its being taken for granted at • once, and the 
attention drawn off to some other question^ likely to be 
admitted on insufficient evidence, and the flaws in that 
evidence overlooked ? Experience will teach us that 
such instances often occur : witness the well-knov/n an- 
ecdote of the Royal Society 5 to whom King Charles IL 
proposed as a question, whence it is that a vessel of water 
receives no addition of weight from a live fish being put 
into it, though it does, if the fish be dead. Various solu- 
tions of great ingenuity were proposed, discussed, object- 
ed to, and defended ; nor was it till they had been long 
bewildered in the inquiry, that it occurred to them to try 
the experiment ; by which they at once ascertained, that 
the phenomenon which they were striving to account for, 
— w^hich was the acknowledged basis, and substratum, as 
it were, of their debates, — had no existence but in the 
invention of the witty monarch. 

Another instance of the same kind is so very remarka- 
ble, that I cannot forbear ^mentioning it. It was objected 
to the system of Copernicus when first brought forward^ 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 5 

that if the earth turned on its axis as he represented, a 
stone dropped from the summit of a tower would not fall 
at the foot of it but at a great distance to the west ; in 
the same manner as a stone dropped from the mast-head 
of a ship in full sail, does not fall at the foot of the mast 
hut towards the stern. To this it was answered, that a 
stone, being a part of the earth, obeys the same laws, 
and moves with it, whereas it is no part of the ship ; of 
which consequently its motion is independent. This so- 
lution was admitted by some, but opposed by others ; 
and the controversy went on with spirit ; nor was it till 
one hundred years after the death of Copernicus, that the 
experiment being tried, it was ascertained that the stone 
thus dropped from the head of the mast, does fall at the 
foot of it ! ^ 

Let it be observed, that I am not now impugning any 
oiie particular point ; but merely showing generally, that 
what is unquestioned is not necessarily unquestionable ; 
since men will often, at the very moment when they are 
accurately sifting the evidence of some disputed point, 
admit hastily, and on the most insufficient grounds, what 
tliey have been accustomed to see taken for granted. 

The celebrated Hume f has pointed out also the readi- 
ness with v/hich men believe, on very slight evidence, 
any story that pleases their imagination by its admirable 
and marvellous character. Such hasty credulity, how- 

* Ovrus araXaiTrcd^o? Toii <^oXXo7$ h ^^ryiffig tjjj aXvihtKi, kk) Itt) t» 
'iroif^a, fAoiXXov rgi-TtovTai, Tliucyd. b. i. c. 20. [Thus many take no 
pains to find the truth, but prefer a sluggish acquiescence in what' 
ever is presented to them.] 

t " With what greediness are the miraculous accounts of travellers 
" received, their descriptions of sea, and land monsters, their rela* 

1^ 



6 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

ever, as be well remarks, is utterly unworthy of a philo- 
sophical mind ; which should rather suspend its judgment 
%e more, in proportion to the strangeness of the account ; 
and yield to none but the most decisive and unimpeacha- 
ble proofs. 

Let it then be allowed us, as is surely reasonable, just 
to inquire, with respect to the extraordinary story I have 
been speaking of, on what evidence we believe it. We 
shall be told that it is notorious ; i. e. in plain English, 
it is very much talked about. But as the generality of 
those who talk about Buonaparte do not even pretend to 
speak from their oicn authority, but merely to repeat 
what they have casually heard, we cannot reckon them 
as in any degree witnesses ; but must allow ninety-nine 
hundredths of what we are told, to be mere hear-say, 
which would not be at all the more worthy of credit even 
if it were repeated by ten times as many more. As for 
those who profess to have personally known Napoleon 
Buonaparte, and to have themselves witnessed his transac- 
tions, I write not for them : if any such there he, who are 
inwardly conscious of the truth of all they relate, I have 
nothing to say to them, but to beg that they will be tole- 
rant and charitable towards their neighbours, who have 
not the same means of ascertaining the truth ; and who 
may well be excused for remaining doubtful about such 
extraordinary events, till most unanswerable proofs shall 
be adduced. 

" tions of wonderful adventures, strange men, and uncouth man- 
"ners." Hume's Essay on Miracles, p. 179, 12rao, j p. 185, 8vo. 
1767 J p. 117, 8vo. 1817. 
' N. B. In order to give every possible facility of reference, three 
editions of Hume's Essays have been generally employed ; a 12mo 
London, 1756, and two 8vo editions. 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 7 

Let US however endeavour to trace up some of this 
bear-say evidence as far towards its source as we are 
able. Most persons would refer to the newspaj)ers as 
the authority from which their knowledge on the subject 
was derived : so that, generally speaking, we may say, 
it is on the testimony of the newspapers that men believe 
in the existence and exploits of Napoleon Buonaparte. 

It is rather a remarkable circumstance, that it is com- 
mon to hear Englishmen speak of the impudent fabrica- 
tions of foreign newspapers, and express wonder that any 
one can be found to credit them ; while they conceive 
that, in this favoured land, the liberty of the press is a 
sufficient security for veracity. It is true they often 
speak contemptuously of such '' newspaper stories " as 
last but a short time ; indeed they continually see them 
contradicted within a day or two in the same paper, or 
their falsity detected by some journal of an opposite 
party; but still whatever is long adhered to and often 
repeated, especially if it also appear in several different 
papers, (and this, though they notoriously copy from one 
another,) is almost sure to be generally believed. 
Whence this high respect which is practically paid to 
newspaper authority f Do men think that because a 
witness has been perpetually detected in falsehood, he 
may therefore be the more safely believed whenever he 
is not detected r" or does adherence to a story, and fre- 
quent repetition of it, render it the more credible ? On 
the contrary, is it not a common remark in other cases, 
that a liar will generally stand to and reiterate what he 
has once said, merely because he has said it ? 

Let us if possible divest ourselves of this superstitious 
veneration for every thing that appears " in print," and 



8 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

examine a little more systematically the evidence which 
is adduced. 

I suppose it will not be denied, that the three follow- 
ing are among the most important points to be ascertain- 
ed, in deciding on the credibility of witnesses ; first, 
\yhether they have the means of gaining correct informa- 
' tion ; secondly, whether they have any interest in con- 
cealing truth, or propagating falsehood ; and, thirdly, 
whether they agree in their testimony. Let us examine 
the present witnesses upon all these points. 

First, what means have the editors of newspapers for 
gaining correct inf3rmation ? We know not, except from 
their own statements. Besides what is copied from other 
journals, foreign or British, (which is usually more than 
three-fourths of the news published,*) they profess to 
refer to the authority of certain private correspondents 
abroad ; loho these correspondents are, what means they 
have of obtaining information, or whether they exist at 

* " Suppose a fact to be transmitted through twenty persons ; the 
*^ first communicating it to the second, the second to the third, &c.j 
" and let the probabihty of each testimony be expressed by nine- 
" tenths, (that is, suppose that of ten reports made by each witness, 
" nine only are true,) then, at every time the story passes from one 
" witness to another, the evidence is reduced to nine-tenths of what 
"^ it was before. Thus after it has passed through the whole twenty, 
" the evidence will be found to be less than one-eight." La Place. 
Essai Philosophique sur les Prohabilites. 

That is, the chances for the fact thus attested being true, will be, 
according to this distinguished calculator, less than one in eight. 
Very few of the common newspaper-stories however, relating to 
foreign countries, could be traced, if the matter were carefully in- 
vestigated, up to an actual eye-witness, even through twenty inter- 
mediate witnesses ; and many of the steps of our ladder would, I 
fear, prove but rotten; few of the reporters would deserve to have 
one in ten fixed as the proportion of their fals^ acoounts. 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 9 

all, we have no way of ascertaining. We find ourselves 
in the condition of the Hindoos, who are told by their 
priests, that the earth stands on an elephant, and the ele- 
phant on a tortoise ; but are left to find out for themselves 
what the tortoise stands on, or whether it stands on any 
thins: at all. 

So much for our clear knowledge of the means of in- 
formation possessed by these witnesses; next, for the 
grounds on which we are to calculate on their verac- 
ity. 

Have they not a manifest interest in circulating the 
wonderful accounts of Napoleon Buonaparte and his 
achievements, whether true or false ? Few would read 
newspapers if they did not sometimes find wonderful or 
important news in them 5 and we may safely say that no 
subject was ever found so inexhaustibly interesting as the 
present. 

It may be urged, however, that there are several ad- 
verse political parties, of which the various public prints 
are respectively the organs, and who would not fail to 
expose each other's fabrications.* Doubtless they would, 
if they could do so without at the same time exposing 
their own ; but identity of interests may induce a commu- 
nity of operations up to a certain point. And let it be 
observed, that the object of contention between these rival 



* " I did not mention the difficulty of detecting a falsehood in any 
" private or even public history, at the time and place where it is 
" said to happen ; much more where the scene is removed to ever 

"■ so small a distance But the 

"matter never conies to any issue, if trusted to the common method 
** of altercation and debate and flying rumours." Hume's Essay on 
Miracles, p. 195, 12mo; p. 200, 201, 8vo. 1767; p. 127, 8vo. 1817. 



10 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

parties is, who shall have the administration of public 
affairs, the control of public expenditure, and the disposal 
of places ; the question, I say, is, not, whether the peo- 
ple shall be governed or not, but, hy which party they 
shall be governed ; — not whether the taxes shall be paid 
or not, but who shall receive them. Now it must be ad- 
mitted, that Buonaparte is a political bugbear, most con- 
venient to any administration : " if you do not adopt our 
" measures and reject those of our opponents, Buona- 
" parte will be sure to prevail over you ; if you do not 
"submit to the Government, at least under our adminis- 
"tration, this formidable enemy will take advantage of 
" your insubordination, to conquer and enslave you : pay 
" your taxes cheerfully, or the tremendous Buonaparte 
" will take all from you." Buonaparte, in short, was the 
burden of every song ; his redoubted name was the 
charm which always succeeded in unloosing the purse- 
strings of the nation. And let us not be too sure, safe 
g§ we now think ourselves, that some occasion may not 
occur for again producing on the stage so useful a per- 
sonage ; it is not merely to naughty children in the nur- 
sery that the threat of being " given to Buonaparte " has 
proved effectual. 

It is surely probable, therefore, that, with an object 
substantially the same, all parties may have availed them- 
selves of one common instrument. It is not necessary 
to suppose that for this purpose they secretly entered into 
a formal agreement ; though by the way, there are re^ 
ports afloat, that the editors of the Courier and Morning 
Chronicle hold amicable consultations as to the conduct 
of their public warfare : I will not take upon me to say 
that this is incredible ; but at any rate it is not necessary 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 11 

for the establishment of the probability I contend for. 
Neither again would I imply that all newspaper-editors 
are utterers of forged stories " knowing them to be forg- 
ed ; " most likely the great majority of them publish what 
they find in other papers with the same simplicity that 
their readers peruse it ; and therefore, it must be observ- 
ed, are not at all more proper than their readers to be 
cited as authorities. 

Still it will be said, that unless we suppose a regularly 
preconcerted plan, we must at least expect to find great 
discrepancies in the accounts published. Though they 
might adopt the general oudine of facts, one from another, 
they would have to fill up the detail for themselves : and 
in this therefore we should meet with infinite and irre- 
concileable variety. 

Now this is precisely" the point I am tending to ; for 
the fact exactly accords with the above supposition ; the 
discordance and mutual contradictions of these witnesses 
being such as would alone throw a considerable shade of 
doubt over their testimony. It is not in minute circum- 
stances alone that the discrepancy appears, such as might 
be expected to appear in a narrative substantially true ; 
but in very great and leading transactions, and such as 
are very intimately connected with the supposed hero. 
For instance, it is by no means agreed whether Buona- 
parte led in person the celebrated charge over the bridge 
of Lodi, (for celebrated it certainly is, as well as the siege 
of Troy, whether either event ever really took place or 
no,) or was safe in the rear, while Augereau performed 
the exploit. The same doubt hangs over the charge of 
the French cavalry at Waterloo. It is no less uncertain 
whether or no this strange personage poisoned in Egypt 



12 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

an hospital-full of his own soldiers ; and butchered in 
cold blood a garrison that had surrendered. But not to 
multiply instances ; the battle of Borodino, which is rep- 
resented as one of the greatest ever fought, is unequivo- 
cally claimed as a victory by both parties ; nor is the 
question decided at this day. We have official accounts 
on both sides, circumstantially detailed, in the names of 
supposed respectable persons, professing to have been 
present on the spot, yet totally irreconcileable. Both 
these accounts may be false ; but since one of them must 
be false, that one (it is no matter wJiich we suppose) 
proves incontrovertibjy this important maxim ; that it is 
possible for a narrative — however circumstantial — how- 
ever steadily maintained — however 'public, and however 
important, the events it relates — however grave the au- 
thority on which it is published — to be nevertheless an 
entire fabrication ! 

Many of the events which have been recorded were 
probably believed much the more readily and firmly, from 
the apparent caution and hesitation with which they were 
at first published, — the vehement contradiction in our 
papers of many pretended French accounts, — and the 
abuse lavished upon them for falsehood, exaggeration, and 
gasconade. But is it not possible, — is it not indeed per- 
fectly natural, — that the publishers even of known false- 
hood should assume this cautious demeanour, and this 
abhorrence of exaggeration, in order the more easily to 
gain credit f Is it not also very possible, that those who 
actually believed what they published, may have suspect- 
ed mere exaggeration, in stories which w^ere entire fic- 
tions ? Many men have that sort of simplicity, that they 
think themselves quite secure against being deceived, 



KAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 13 

provided they believe only part of the story thf>y hear ; 
when perhaps the whole is equally false. So that per- 
haps these simple-hearted editors, who were so vehement 
against lying bulletins and so wary in announcing their 
great news, were in the condition of a clown, who thinks 
he has bought a great bargain of a Jew, because he has 
beat down the price perhaps from a guinea to a crown, 
for some article that is not really worth a groat. 

With respect to the character of Buonaparte, the dis- 
sonance is, if possible, still greater. According to some 
he was a wise, humane, magnanimous hero : others paint 
him as a monster of cruelty, meanness, and perfidy : 
some, even of those who are the most inveterate against 
him, speak very highly of his political and military ability ; 
others place him on the very verge of insanity. But 
allowing that all this may be the colouring of party-preju- 
dice, (which surely is allowing a great deal,) there is one 
point to which such a solution will hardly apply : if there 
be any thing that can be clearly ascertained in history, 
one would think it must be the 'personal courage of a mili- 
tary man ; yet here we are as much at a loss as ever y 
at the very same times and on the same occasions, he is 
described by different writers as a man of undaunted 
intrepidity, and as an absolute poltroon. 

What then are we to believe ^ if we are disposed to 
credit all that is told us, we must believe in the existence 
not only of one, but of two or three Buonapartes ; if we 
admit nothing but what is well authenticated, we shall be 
compelled to doubt of the existence of any.* 

It appears, then, that those, on whose testimony the 



* " We entertain a suspicion concerning any matter of fact, when 
" the witnesses contradict each other; when they are of a suspicious 
2 



14 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TQ 

existence and actions of Buonaparte are generally heliev" 
ed, fail in all the most essential points on which the 
credibility of witnesses depends i first, we have no assur- 
ance that they have access to correct information ; sec- 
ondly, that they have an apparent interest in propagating 
falsehood ; and, thirdly, they palpably contradict each 
other in the most important points. 

Another circumstance which throws additional suspi- 
cion on these tales is, that the whig-party, as they are 
called, — the warm advocates for liberty, and opposers 
of the encroachments of monarchical power,- — have for 
some time past strenuously espoused the cause, and vin- 
dicated the character of Buonaparte, who is represented 
by all as having been, if not a tyrant, at least an absolute^ 
despot. One of the most forward in this cause is a gen- 
tleman, who once stood foremost in holding up this very 
man to public execration, — who first published, and long 
maintained against popular incredulity, the accounts of 
his atrocities in Egypt. Now that such a course should 
be adopted, for party-purposes, by those who are aware 
that the whole story is a fiction, and the hero of it imagi- 
nary, seems not very incredible : but if they believed in 
the real existence of this despot, I cannot conceive how 
they could so forsake their principles as to advocate his 
cause, and eulogize his character. 

After all, it may be expected that many who perceive 
the force of these objections, will yet be loth to think it 
possible that they and the public at large can have been 
so long and so greatly imposed upon. And thus it is 

"character; when they have an interest in^ what they affirm." 
Hume's Essay on Miracles, p. 172, 12mo : p. 176, 8vo. 1767; p. 113, 
8vo. 1817. 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE, 15 

that the magnitude and boldness of a fraud become its 
best support : the millions who for so many ages have be- 
lieved in Mahomet or Brahma, lean as it were on each 
other for support ; and not having vigour of mind enough 
boldly to throw off vulgar prejudices, and dare be wiser 
than the multitudcj persuade themselves that what so 
many have acknowledged, must be true. But I call on 
those who boast their philosophical freedom of thought, 
and would fain tread in the" steps of Hume and other in- 
quirers of the like exalted and speculative genius, to fol- 
low up fairly and fully their own principles, and, throwing 
off the shackles of authority, to examine carefully the evi- 
dence of whatever is proposed to themj before they admit 
its truth. 

That even in this enlightened age, as it is called, a 
whole nation may be egregiously imposed upon, even in 
matters which intimately concern them, may be proved 
(if it has not been already proved) by the following in- 
stance : it was stated in the newspapers, that, a month 
after the battle of Trafalgar, an English officer, who had 
been a prisoner of war, and was exchanged, returned to 
this country from France, and, beginning to condole with 
his countrymen on the terrible defeat they had sustained, 
was infinitely astonished to learn that the battle of Tra- 
falgar was a splendid victory : he had been assured, he 
said, that in that batde the English had been totally de- 
feated ; and the French were fully and universally per- 
suaded that such was the fact. Now if this report of the 
belief of the French nation was not true, the British Pub- 
lic were completely imposed upon ; if it were true, then 
both nations were, at the same time, rejoicing in the 
^vml qf the sanie battle, as a signal victory to them- 



16 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

selves ; and consequently one or other at least of these 
nations must have been the dupes of their Government : 
for if the battle was never fought at all, or was not de- 
cisive on either side, in that case hoth parties were de- 
ceived. This instance, 1 conceive, is absolutely demon- 
strative of the point in question. 

" But what shall we say to the testimony of those 
" many respectable persons who went to Plymouth on 
"purpose, and saw Buonaparte with iheir own eyes ? must 
" they not trust their senses f " I would not disparage 
either the eye-sight or the veracity of these gendemen. 
T am ready to allow that they went to Plymouth for the 
purpose of seeing Buonaparte \ nay more, that they ac- 
tually rowed out into the harbour in a boat, and came 
along side of a man-of-war, on whose deck they saw a 
man in a cocked hat, who, they were iold, was Buona- 
parte. This is the utmost point to which their testimony 
goes ; how they ascertained that this man in the cocked 
hat had gone through all the marvellous and romantic 
adventures with which we have so long been amused, we 
are not told. Did they perceive in his physiognomy, 
his true name, and authentic history ? Truly this evi- 
dence is such as country people give one for a story of 
apparitions ; if you discover any signs of incredulity, 
they triumphantly shew the very house which the ghost 
haunted, the identical dark corner where it used to van- 
ish, and perhaps even the tombstone of the person whose 
death it foretold. Jack Cade's nobility was supported 
by the same irresistible kind of evidence : having asserted 
that the eldest son of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, 
was stolen by a beggar woman, " became bricklayer when 
" he came to age," and was the father of the supposed 



Napoleon Buonaparte. 17 

Jack Cade i — one of his companions confirms the story, 
by saying, " Sir, he made a chimney in my father's 
" house, and the hricks are alive at this day to testify it ; 
" therefore deny it not." 

Much of the same kind is the testimony of our brave 
countrymen, who are ready to produce the scars they 
received in fighting against this terrible Buonaparte. 
That they fought and were wounded, they may safely 
testify; and probably they no less firmly believe what 
they were told respecting the cause in which they fought : 
it would have been a high breach of discipline to doubt 
"it; and they, I conceive, are men better skilled in hand- 
ling a musket, than in sifting evidence, and detecting im- 
posture. But I defy any one of them to come forward 
and declare, on his own knowledge, what was the cause 
in which he fought, — under whose commands the op- 
posed generals acted, — and whether the person who 
issued those commands did really perform the mighty 
achievements we are told of. 

Let those then who pretend to philosophical freedom 
of inquiry, — who scorn to rest their opinions on popular 
belief, and to shelter themselves under the example of 
the unthinking multitude, consider carefully each one for 
himself, what is the evidence proposed to himself in par- 
ticular, for the existence of such a person as Napoleon 
Buonaparte : (I do not mean whether there ever was a 
person bearing that name, for that is a question of no 
consequence, but whether any such person ever perform- 
ed all the wonderful things attributed to him;) let him 
then weigh well the objections to that evidence, (of which 

I have given but a hasty and imperfect sketch,) and if he 
2% 



18 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

then finds it amount to any thing more than a probability, 
I have only to congratulate him on his easy faith. 

But the same testimony which would have great weight 
m establishing a thing intrnsically probable, will lose part 
of this weight in proportion as the matter attested is im- 
probable ; and if adduced in support of any thing that is 
at variance with uniform experience,*" will be rejected at 
once by all sound reasoners. Let us then consider what 
sort of a story it is that is proposed to our acceptance. 
How grossly contradictory are the reports of the different 
authorities, I have already remarked : but consider, by 
itself, the story told by any one of them ; it carries an 
air of fiction and romance on the very face of it ; all the 
events are great, and splendid, and marvellous ; f great 
armies, great victories, great frosts, great reverses, " hair- 
breadth 'scapes," empires subverted in a iew days ; 
every thing happening in defiance of political calculations, 
and in opposition to the experience of past times ; every 
thing upon that grand scale, so com.mon in Epic Poetry, 
so rare in real life ; and thus calculated to strike the im- 
agination of the vulgar, — and to remind the sober-think- 

* " That testimony itself derives all its force from experience, 

'' seems very certain The first 

'' author w^e believe, who stated fairly the connexion between the 
" evidence of testimony and the evidence of experience, was Hume, 
" in his Essay on Miracles, a work . . . abounding in maxims 
" of great use in the conduct of life." Edinh. Review, Sept. 1814, 
p. 328. 

t" Suppose, for instance, that the fact which the testimony en- 
" deayours to establish partakes of the extraordinary and the mar- 
"vellous; in that case, the evidence resulting from the testimony 
" receives a diminution, greater or less in proportion as the fact is 
" more or less unusual." Hume's Essay on Miracles, p. 173, 12mo ; 
p. 176, 8vo. 1767 ; p. 113, 8vo. 1817. 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 19 

ing few of the Arabian Nights. Every event too has 
that roundness and completeness which is so characteris- 
tic of fiction ; nothing is done by halves 5 we have com- 
plete victories — total overthrows, — entii^e subversion of 
empires, — perfect reestablishments of them, — crowded 
upon us in rapid succession. To enumerate the improb- 
abilities of each of the several parts of this history, would 
fill volumes ; but they are so fresh in every one's memory, 
that there is no need of such a detail : let any judicious 
man, not ignorant of history and of human nature, revolve 
them in his mind, and consider how far they are conform- 
able to experience,'^ our best and only sure guide. lo 
vain will he seek in history for something similar to this 
wonderful Buonaparte ; ^' nought but himself can be his 
parallel." 

Will the conquests of Alexander be compared with 
his ? They were effected over a rabble of effeminate, 
undisciplined barbarians ; else bis progress would hardly 
have been so rapid : witness his father Philip, who was 
much longer occupied in subduing the comparatively in- 
significant territory of the warlike and civilized Greeks^ 
notwithstanding their being divided into numerous petty 
states, whose mutual jealousy enabled him to contend 
with them separately. But the Greeks had never made 
such progress in arts and arms as the great and powerful 
states of Europe, which Buonaparte is represented as so 
speedily overpowering. His empire has been compared 
to the Roman : mark the contrast ; he gains in a few 

* " The ultimate standard by which we determine all disputes that 
" may arise is always derived from experience and observation." 
Hume's Essay on Miracles, ^. 172, 12mo ; p. 175, 8vo. 1767; p. 112, 
8vo. 1817. 



20 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

years, thai dominion, or at least control, over Gernaany, 
wealthy, civilized, and powerful, which the Romans in the 
plenitude of their power could not obtain, during a strug- 
gle of as many centuries, against the ignorant half-savages 
who then possessed it ! 

Another peculiar circumstance in the history of this 
extraordifiary personage is, that when it is found conve- 
nient to represent him as defeated, though Ke is by no 
means defeated by halves, but involved in much more 
sudden and total ruin than the personages of real history 
usually meet with 5 yet, if it is thought fit he should be 
restored, it is done as quickly and completely as if Mer- 
lin's rod had been employed. He enters Russia with a 
prodigious army, which is totally ruined by an unprece- 
dented h«ird winter ; (every thing relating to this man is 
prodigious and unprecedented ;) yet in a few months we 
find him intrusted with another great army in Germany, 
which is also totally ruined at Leipsic ; making, inclusive 
of the Egyptian, the third great army thus totally lost : 
yet the French are so good-natured as to furnish him with 
another, sufficient to make a formidable stand in France ; 
he is however conquered, and presented with the sove- 
reignty of Elba ; (surely, by the bye, some more probable 
way might have been found of disposing of him, till again 
wanted, than to place him thus on the very verge of his 
ancient dominions ;) thence he returns to France, where 
he is received with open arms, and enabled to lose a fifth 
great army at Waterloo : yet so eager were these people 
to be a sixth time led to destruction, that it was found 
necessary to confine him in an island some thousand miles 
off, and to quarter foreign troops upon them, lest they 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 21 

should make an insurrection in his favour ! * Does any 
one believe all this, and yet refuse to believe a miracle ? 
Or rather, what is this but a miracle ? Is it not a viola- 
tion of the laws of nature f for surely there are moral 
laws of nature as well as physical ; which, though more 
liable to exceptions in this or that particular case, are no 
less true as general rules than the laws of matter, and 
therefore cannot be violated and contradicted beyond a 
certain point, without a miracle. f 



* 'H dav^ocrot, •ffo'k'ka,. 

Yiou 9rov Ti xu) (iporuv (ppfvctg 

'XnEP TON AAH0H AOFON 

''E^uTturuvrt fituhi. Find. Olymp. 1. 
[Indeed the Miracles of those days were many. But Fables cunning- 
ly devised sway the minds of men more than truth itself.] 

t This doctrine, though hardly needing confirmation from authority, 
is supported by that of Hume, his eighth essay is, throughout, an 
argument for the doctrine of philosophical " necessity," drawn entire- 
Jy from the general uniformity observable in the course of nature with 
respect to the principles of human conduct, as well as those of the ma- 
terial universe ; from which uniformity, he observes, it is that we are 
enabled, m loth cases, to form our judgments by means oi Experience : 
" and if," says he, " we would explode any forgery in history, we can- 
" not make use of a more convincing argument, than to prove that the 
" actions ascribed to any person, are directly contrary to the course of 

''nature The veracity of Quintus 

'' Curtius is as suspicious when he describes the supernatural courage 
** of Alexander, by which he was hurried on singly to attack multitudes, 
*' as when he describes his supernatural force and activity, by which he 
" was able to resist them. So readily and universally do we acknowl- 
*"^ edge a uniformity in human motives and actions as well as in the ope- 
rations of bod]] :' Eighth Essay, p. 131, 12mo ; p. 85, 8vo. 1817. 

Accordingly, in the tenth essay, his use of the term " miracle," after 
having called it " a transgression of a law of nature," plainly shews 
that he meant to 'moXxx&e Mtman nature: "no testimony," says he, 
'^ is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a 



S2 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

Nay, there is this additional circumstance which ren- 
ders the contradiction of Experience more glaring in this 
case than in that of the miraculous histories which inge- 
nious sceptics have held up to contempt : all the advo- 
cates of miracles admit that they are rare exceptions to 
the general course of nature ; but contend that they must 
needs be so, on account of the rarity of those extraordi- 
nary occasions which are the reason of their being per- 
formed : a Miracle, they say, does not happen every day, 
because a Revelation is not given every day. It would 

"nature that its falsehood would he more miraculous than the fact 
*' which it endeavours to establish : " the term " prodigy " also, which 
he all along employs as synonymous with " miracle," is applied 
>lo testimony in the same manner, immediately after : " In the 

*' foregoing reasoning we have supposed that the false- 

"hood of that testimony would he a kind of prodigy." Now had he 
meant to confine the meaning of " miracle," and " prodigy," to a 
violation of the laws of matter, the epithet " miraculous, ^^ applied, even 
thus hypolhetically, to false testimony, would be as unmeaning as the 
epithets " green," or " square ; " the only possible sense in which we 
can apply to itj even in imagination, the term " miraculous" is that of 
*' highly improbable," — " contrary to those laws of nature which re- 
" spect human conduct : " and in this sense accordingly he uses the 
word in the very next sentence : " When any one tells mc that he saw 
*' a dead man restored to life, I immediately consider with myself 
«' whether it be more probable that this person should either deceive or 
" be deceived, or that the fact which he relates should really have hap- 
" pened. I weigh the one miracle against the other." Hume's Essay 
on Miracles, p. 176, 177, 12mo ; p. 182, Svo. 1767 ; p. 115, 8vo. 1817 
See also a passage above quoted from the same essay, where he 
speaks of " the miraculous accounts of travellers ; " evidently using the 
word in this sense. Perhaps it was superfluous to cite authority for 
applying the term '' miracle " to whatever is highly " improbable ; " 
but it is important to the students of Hume, to be fully aware that he 
uses those two expressions as synonymous ; since otherwise they would 
mistake the meaning of that passage which he justly calls " a genera 
maxim worthy of our attention." 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 23 

be foreign to the present purpose to seek for arguments 
against this answer ; I leave it to those who are engaged 
in the controversy, to find a reply to it ; but my present 
object is, to point out that this solution does not at all 
apply in the present case. Where is the peculiarity of 
the occasion ? What sufficient reason is there for a 
series of events occurring in the eighteenth and nineteenth 
centuries, which never took place before f Was Europe 
at that period peculiarly weak, and in a state of barba- 
rism, that one man could achieve such conquests, and 
acquire such a vast empire ? On the contrary, she was 
flourishing in the height of strength and civilization. Can 
the persevering attachment and blind devotedness of the 
French to this man, be accounted for by his being the 
descendant of a long line of kings, whose race was hal- 
lowed by hereditary veneration ? No ; we are told he 
was a low-born usurper, and not even a Frenchman ! Is 
it that he was a good and kind sovereign ? He is repre- 
sented not only as an imperious and merciless despotj 
but as most wantonly careless of the lives of his soldiers. 
Could the French army and people have failed to hear 
from the wretched survivers of his supposed Russian ex- 
pedition, how they had left the corpses of above 100,000 
of their comrades bleaching on the snow-drifts of that 
dismal country, whither his mad ambition had conducted 
them, and where his selfish cowardice had deserted them ? 
Wherever we turn to seek for circumstances that may 
help to account for the events of this incredible story, we 
only meet with such as aggravate its improbability.* Had 



* a 



Events may be so extraordinary that they can hardly be eg- 
'' tablished by testimony. We would not give credit to a man who 
*' would affirm that he saw an hundred dice thrown into the air, and 



24 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

it been told of some distant country, at a remote period^ 
we could not have told what peculiar circumstances there 
might have been to render probable what seems to us 
most strange ; and yet in that case every philosophical 
sceptic ; every free-thinking speculator, would instantly 
have rejected such a history, as utterly unworthy of credit. 
What, for instance, would the great Hume, or any of the 
philosophers of his school have said, if they had found in 
the antique records of any nation such a passage as this : 
" There was a certain man of Corsica, whose name was 
" Napoleon, and he was one of the chief captains of the 
" host of the French ; and he gathered together an army, 
" and went and fought against Egypt ; but when the 
" king of Britain heard thereof, he sent ships of war and 
" valiant men to fight against the French in Egypt. So 
"they warred against them, and prevailed, and strength- 
" ened the hands of the rulers of the land against the 
" French, and drave away Napoleon from before the 
" city of Acre. Then Napoleon left the captains and 
"the army that were in Egypt, and fled, and returned 
"back to France. So the French people took Napo- 
" leon, and made him ruler over them, and he became 
" exceeding great, insomuch that there was none like 
" him of all that had ruled over France before." 

What, I say, would Hume have thought of this, espe- 
cially if he had been told that it was at this day generally 
credited ? Would he not have confessed that he had 
been mistaken in supposing there was a peculiarly blind 

*' that they all fell on the same faces." Edinh. Review, Sept. 1814, 
p. 327. 

Let it be observed, that the instance here given is miraculous in 
no other sense but that of being highly improbable. 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 25 

credulity and prejudice in favour of every thing that is 
accounted sacred ; ^ for that, since even professed scep- 
tics swallow implicitly such a story as this, it appears 
there must be a still blinder prejudice in favour of every 
thing that is not accounted sacred ? 

Suppose, again, we found in this history such passages 
as the following : " And it came to pass after these things 
" that Napoleon strengthened himself, and gathered to- 
" gether another host instead of that which he had lost, 
" and went and warred against the Prussians, and the 
" Russians, and the Austrians, and all the rulers of the 
'' north country, which were confederate against him. 
" And the ruler of Sweden also, which was a Frenchman, 
" warred against Napoleon. So they went forth, and 
" fought against the French in the plain of Leipsic. And 
" the French were discomfited before their enemies, 
" and fled, and came to the rivers which are behind Leip- 
" sic, and essayed to pass over, that they might escape 
" out of the hand of their enemies ; but they could not ; 
" for Napoleon had broken down the bridges ; so the 
" people of the north countries came upon them, and 
" smote them with a very grievous slaughter." . . . 



" Then the ruler of Austria and all the rulers of the 
" north countries sent messengers unto Napoleon to speak 
" peaceably unto him, saying, Why should there be war 
" between us any more ? Now Napoleon had put away 
" his wife, and taken the daughter of the ruler of Austria 

* " If the spirit of religion join itself to the love of wonder, there 
•' is an end of common sense ; and human testimony in these cir- 
" cumstances loses all pretensions to authority." Hume's Essay on 
Miracles, p. 179, 12mo; p. 185, 8vo. 1767; p. 117, 8vo. 1817. 
3 



26 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

" to wife. So all the counsellers of Napoleon came and 
" stood before him, and said, Behold now these kings 
" are merciful kings ; do even as they say unto thee ; 
" knowest thou not yet that France is destroyed ? . But 
" he spake roughly unto his counsellors, and drave them 
" out from his presence, neither would he hearken unto 
" their voice. And when all the kings saw that, they 
" warred against France, and smote it with the edge of 
" the sword, and came near to Paris, which is the royal 
" city, to take it : so the men of Paris went out, and de- 
" livered up the city to them. Then those kings spake 
" kindly unto the men of Paris, saying, Be of good cheer, 
" there shall no harm happen unto you. Then were the 
" men of Paris glad, and said. Napoleon is a tyrant ; he 
" shall no more rule over us : also all the princes, the 
"judges, the counsellors, and the captains, whom Napo- 
" leon had raised up, even from the lowest of the people, 
" sent unto Lewis, the brother of King Lewis, whom 
" they had slain, and made him king over France." . 



" And when Napoleon saw that the kingdom was de- 
" parted from him, he said unto the rulers which came 
" against him, Let me, I pray you, give the kingdom unto 
" my son : but they would not hearken unto him. Then 
" he spake yet again, saying. Let me, I pray you, go and 
" live in the island of Elba, which is over against Italy, 
" nigh unto the coast of France ; and ye shall give me 
" an allowance for me and my household, and the land of 
" Elba also for a possession. So they made him ruler 
''of Elba." 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 27 

" In those days the Pope returned unto his own land. 
" Now the French, and divers other nations of Europe 
" are servants of the Pope, and hold him in reverence ; 
" but he is an abomination unto the Britons, and to the 
" Prussians, and to the Russians, and to the Swedes. 
" Howbeit the French had taken away all his lands, and 
" robbed him of all that he had, and carried him away 
" captive into France. But when the Britons, and the 
" Prussians, and the Russians, and the Swedes, and the 
" rest of the nations that were confederate against France, 
«' came thither, they caused the French to set the Pope 
" at liberty, and to restore all his goods that they had 
" taken 5 likewise they gave him back all his possessions ; 
" and he went home in peace, and ruled over his own 
" city as in times past." . 

" And it came to pass when Napoleon had not yet 
"been a full year at Elba, that he said unto his men of 
" war vi^hich clave unto him. Go to, let us go back to 
" France, and fight against King Lewis, and thrust him 
" out from being king. So he departed, he and 600 men 
" with him that drew the sword, and warred against King 
"Lewis. Then all the men of Belial gathered them- 
" selves together, and said, God save Napoleon. And 
" when Lewis saw that, he fled . and gat him into the 
" land of Batavia : and Napoleon ruled over France." 
he. &c. he. 

Now if a freethinking philosopher — one of those who 
advocate the cause of unbiassed reason, and despised 
pretended revelations — were to meet with such a tissue 
if absurdities as this, in an old Jewish record, would he 



28 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

not reject it at once as too palpable an Imposture* to 
deserve even any inquiry into its evidence ? Is that 
credible then of the civilized Europeans now, which could 
not, if reported of the semi-barbarous Jews 3000 years 
ago, be established by any testimony ? Will it be an- 
swered, that " there is nothing supernatural in all this ? " 
Why is it, then, that you object to what is supernatural 
- — that you reject every account of miracles — if not be- 
cause they are improbable 7 Surely then a story equally 
or still more improbable, is not to be implicitly received, 
merely on the ground that it is not miraculous : though 
in fact, as I have already (in note p. 21.) shewn from 
Hume's authority, it really is miraculous. The opposi- 
tion to Experience has been proved to be as complete in 
this case, as in what are commonly called miracles ; and 
the reasons assigned for that contrariety by the defenders 
of them, cannot be pleaded in the present instance. If 
then philosophers, who reject every wonderful story that 
is maintained by priests, are yet found ready to believe 
every thing else, however improbable, they will surely lay 
themselves open to the accusation brought gainst them, 
of being unduly prejudiced against whatever relates to 
religion. 

There is one more circumstance which Icannot for- 
bear mentioning, because it so much adds to the air of 

* " I desire any one to lay his hand upon his heart, and after serious 
" consideration declare, whether he thinks that the falsehood of such 
" a book, supported by such testimony, would be more extraordinary 
" and miraculous than all the miracles it relates." HuTne's Essay on 
Miracles, p. 200, 12mo ; p. 206, 8vo. 1767 ; p. 131, 8vo. 1817. 

Let it be borne in mind, that Hume (as I have above remarked) con- 
tinually employs the terms " miracle " and " prodigy " to signify any 
thiog that is highly improbable and extraordinary. 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 29 

fiction which pervades every part of this marvellous tale ; 
and that is, the nationality of it* 

Buonaparte prevailed over all the hostile states in turn, 
exce'pt England ; in the zenith of his power, his fleets 
were swept from the sea, hy England; his troops al- 
ways defeat an equal, and frequently even a superior 
number of those of any other nation except the English ; 
and with them it is just the reverse ; twice, and twice 
only, he is personally engaged against an English com- 
mander, and both times he is totally defeated ; at Acre 
and at Waterloo ; and, to crown all, England finally crush- 
es this tremendous power, which has so long kept the 
continent in subjection or in alarm, and to the English he 
surrenders himself prisoner ! Thoroughly national to be 
sure ! It may be all very true ; but I would only ask, if 
a story had been fabricated for the express purpose of 
amusing the English nation, could it have been contrived 
more ingeniously ? It would do admirably for an epic 
poem ; and indeed bears a considerable resemblance to 
the Iliad and the jEneid ; in which Achilles and the 
Greeks, ^neas and the Trojans, (the ancestors of the 
Romans,) are so studiously held up to admiration. Buo- 
naparte's exploits seem magnified in order to enhance 
the glory of his conquerors ; just as Hector is allowed to 
triumph during the absence of Achilles, merely to give 
additional splendour to his overthrow by the arm of that 
invincible hero. Would not this circumstance alone 
render a history rather susjjicious in the eyes of an acute 

* " The wise lend a very academic faith to every report which favours 
" the passion of the reporter, whether it magnifies his country, his 
** family, or himself." Hume's Essay on Miracles, p. 144, l2mo 
p. 200, 8vo. 1767 ; p. 126, 8vo. 1817. 
3* 



so HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

critic, even if it were not filled with such gross improba- 
bilities ; and induce him to suspend his judgment, till 
very satisfactory evidence (far stronger than can be found 
in this case) should be produced ? 

Is it then too much to demand of the wary academic* 
a suspension of judgment as to the " life and adventures 
" of Napoleon Buonaparte ? " 1 do not pretend to decide 
positively that there is not, nor ever was, any such person ; 
but merely to propose it as a doubtful point, and one the 
more deserving of careful investigation, from the very 
circumstance of its having hitherto been admitted without 
inquiry. Far less would I undertake to decide what is, 
or has been, the real state of affairs : he who points out 
the improbability of the current story, is not bound to sug- 
gest an hypothesis of his own ; f though it may safely be 
affirmed, that it would be hard to invent any, more im- 
probable than the received one. One may surely be al- 
lowed to hesitate in admitting the stories which the an- 
cient poets tell, of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions being 
caused by imprisoned giants, without being called upon 
satisfactorily to account for those phenomena. 

Amidst the defect of valid evidence under which, as I 
have already shewn, we labour in the present instance, it 
is hardly possible to offer more than here and there a 
probable conjecture ; or to pronounce how much may be 
true, and how much fictitious, in ihe accounts presented 
to us. For it is to be observed that this case is much 

* " Nothing can be more contrary than such a philosophy " (the aca- 
demic or sceptical) " to the supine indolence of the mind, its rash 
" arrogance, its lofty pretensions, and its superstitious credulity." Fifth 
Essay, p. 63, l2nio ; p. 41, 8vo. 1817. 

t See Hume's Essay on Miracles, p. 189, 191, 195, 12mo; p. 193, 
197, 201, 202, Svo. 1767 5 p. 124, 125, 126, 8vo. 1817. 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 31 

more open to sceptical doubts even than some miraculous 
histories ; for some of them are of such a nature that you 
cannot consistently admit a part and reject the rest; but 
are bound, if you are satisfied as to the reality of any one 
miracle, to embrace the whole system ; so that it is neces- 
sary for the sceptic to impeach the evidence of cr// of them, 
separately, and collectively : whereas here, each single 
point requires to be established separately, since no one 
of them authenticates the rest. Supposing there be a 
state-prisoner at St. Helena, (which, by the way, it is ac- 
knowledged many of the French disbelieve,) how do we 
know who he is, or why he is confined there ? There 
have been state-prisoners before now, who were never 
guilty of subjugating half Europe, and whose offences have 
been very imperfectly ascertained. Admitting that there 
have been bloody wars going on for several years past, 
which is highly probable, it does not follow that the events 
of those wars were such as we have been told ; — that 
Buonaparte was the author and conducter of them ; — or 
that such a person ever existed. What disturbances may 
have taken place in the government of the French people, 
we, and even nineteen-twentieths of them, have no means 
of learning but from imperfect hear-say evidence : but 
that there have been numerous bloody wars with France 
under the dominion of the Bourbons, we are well assured : 
and we are now told that France is governed by a Bour- 
bon king, of the name of Lewis, who professes to be in 
the twenty-third year of his reign. Let every one con- 
jecture for himself. I am far from pretending to decide 
who may have been the governor or governors of the 
French nation, and the leaders of their armies, for several 
years past. Certain it is, that when men are indulging 



32 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

their inclination for the marvellous, they always shew a 
strong propensity to accumulate upon one individual (real 
or imaginary) the exploits of many ; besides multiplying 
and exaggerating these exploits a thousand-fold. Thus, 
the expounders of the ancient mythology tell us there 
were several persons of the name of Hercules, (either 
originally bearing that appellation, or having it applied to 
them as an honour,) whose collective feats, after being 
dressed up in a sufficiently marvellous garb, were attribut- 
ed to a single hero. Is it not just possible, that during 
the rage for words of Greek derivation, the tide of " Na- 
poleon " {NanoUav), which signifies " Lion of the forest," 
may have been conferred by the popular voice on more 
than one favourite general, disdnguished for irresistible 
valour f Is it not also possible that " Buonaparte " 
may have been originally a sort of cant terrn applied to 
the " good (i. e. the bravest or most patriotic) part " of 
the French army, collectively ; and have been afterwards 
mistaken for the proper name of an individual ? I do 
not profess to support this conjecture ; but it is certain 
that such mistakes may and do occur. Some critics have 
supposed that the Athenians imagined Anastasis (" Res- 
urrection ") to be a new goddess. In whose cause Paul 
was preaching. Would it have been thought any thing 
incredible If we had been told that the ancient Persians, 
who had no idea of any but a monarchical government, 
had supposed Aristocratia to be a queen of Sparta ? But 
we need not confine ourselves to hypothetical cases, it is 
postively stated that the Hindoos at this day believe " the 
" honourable East India Company " to be a venerable old 
Lady of high dignity, residing in this country. The Ger- 
mans of the present day derive their name from a similar 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. oJ 

mistake ; the first tribe of them who invaded GauP assum- 
ed the honourable title of " (rer-marij" which signifies 
" warrior ; " (the words " war " and " guerre," as well 
as " man," which remains in our language unaltered, are 
evidently derived from the Teutonic,) and the Gauls ap- 
plied this as a name, to the whole race. 

However, 1 merely throw out these conjectures without 
by any means contending that more plausible ones might 
not be suggested. But whatever supposition we adopts 
or whether we adopt, any the objections to the commonly- 
received accounts will remain in their full force, and im- 
periously demand the attention of the candid sceptic. 

I call upon those therefore who profess themselves ad- 
vocates of free inquiry, — who disdain to be carried 
along with the stream of popular opinion, — and who will 
listen to no testimony that runs counter to experience, — 
to follow up their own principles fairly and consistently* 
Let the same mode of argument be adopted in all cases 
alike ; and then it can no longer be attributed to hostile 
prejudice, but to enlarged and philosophical views. If 
they have already rejected some histories, on the ground 
of their being strange and marvellous, — of their relating 

* GeimaniEe vocabulum recens et nuper additum ; quoniam, qui primJ 
Rhenum transgress! Gallos expulerint, ac nunc Tungri, tunc Germani 
vocati sint: ita nationis nomen in nomen gentis evaluisse paullatim, ut 
omnesj primum a victore ob metum, mox a seipsis invento nomine, 
Germani vocarentur. Tacitus de. Mor. Germ. 

The word Germany is held to be of modern addition. In support of 
this hypothesis, they tell us that the people, who first passed the Rhine, 
and took possessijn of a canton in Gaul, though known at present by 
the name of Tungrians, were, in that expedition, called Germans, and 
thence the title -assumed by a band of emigrants in order to spread a 
general term in their progress, extended itself by degrees, and became, 
in time, the appellation of a whole people. [Murphy.] 



34 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

facts, unprecedented, and at variance with the established 
course of nature, — ■ let them not give credit to another 
history which lies open to the very same objections., — 
the extraordinary and romantic tale we have been just 
considering. If they have discredited the testimony of 
witnesses, who are said at least to have been disinterested, 
and to have braved persecutions and death in support of 
their assertions, — can these philosophers consistently 
listen to and believe the testimony of those who avowedly 
get money by the tales they publish, and who do not even 
pretend that they incur any serious risk in case of being 
detected in a falsehood ? If in other cases they have 
refused to listen to an account which has passed through 
many intermediate hands before it reaches them, and 
which is defended by those who have an interest m 
maintaining it ; let them consider through how many, and 
what very suspicious hands, this story has arrived to them, 
without the possibility (as I have shewn) of tracing it back 
to any decidedly authentic source, after all ; * and like- 
wise how strong an interest, in every way, those who have 
hitherto imposed on them, have, in keeping up the impos- 
ture. Let them, in short, shew themselves as ready to 
detect the cheats, and despise the fables, of politicians, 
as of priests. 

But if they are still wedded to the popular belief in 
this point, let them be consistent enough to admit the 
same evidence in other cases, which they yield to, in 
this. If after all that has been said, they cannot bring 
themselves to doubt of the existence of Napoleon Buona- 

* For let it not be forgotten, that these writers, themselves, refer to 
no better authority than that of an un-named and unknown foreign cor- 
respondent. 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 35 

parte, they must at least acknowledge that they do not 
apply to that question, the same plan of reasoning which 
they have made use of in others j and they are conse- 
quently bound in reason and in honesty to renounce it 
altogether. 



POSTSCRIPT TO THE THIRD EDITION. 



It may seem arrogant for an obscure and nameless 
individual to claim the glory of having put to death the 
most formidable of all recorded heroes ; but a shadowy 
champion may be overthrown by a shadowy antagonist. 
Many a terrific spectre has been laid by the beams of 
a halfpenny candle. And if I have succeeded in making 
out, in the foregoing pages, a probable case of suspicion, 
it must, I think, be admitted, that [there is some ground 
for my present boast, of having Icilled Napoleon Buona- 
parte. 

Let but the circumstances of the case be considered : 
This mighty Emperor, who had been so long the bug- 
bear of the civilized world, after having obtained suc- 
cesses and undergone reverses, such as never befel any 
(other at least) real potentate, was at length sentenced 
to confinement in the remote island of St. Helena ; a 
measure which many persons wondered at, and many 
objected to, on various grounds ; not unreasonably, sup- 
posing the illustrious exile to be a real person : but on 
the supposition of his being only a man of straw, the 
situadon was exceedingly favourable for keeping him out 
of the way of impertinent curiosity, when not wanted, 
and for making him the foundadon of any new plots that 
there might be occasion to conjure up. 

4 



38 POSTSCRIPT TO 

About this juncture it was that the public attention 
was first invited by these pages, to the question as to the 
real existence of Napoleon Buonaparte. They excited, 
it may be fairly supposed, along with much surprise and 
much censure, some degree of doubt, and, probably, of 
consequent inquiry. No fresh evidence, as far as I can 
learn, of the truth of the disputed points, was brought for- 
ward to dispel these doubts. We heard, however, of 
the most jealous precautions being used to prevent any 
intercourse between the formidable prisoner, and any 
stranger, who, from motives of curiosity, might wish to 
visit him. The " man in the iron mask " could hardly 
have been more rigorously secluded : and we also heard 
various contradictory reports of conversations between 
him and the few who were allowed access to him : the 
falsehood and inconsistency of most of these reports being 
proved in contemporary publications. 

At length, just about the time when the public scepti- 
cism respecting this extraordinary personage might be 
supposed to have risen to an alarming height, it was an- 
nounced to us that he was dead ! A stop was thus put, 
most opportunely, to all troublesome inquiries. I do not 
undertake to deny that such a person did live and die. 
That he was, and that he did, every thing that is reported, 
we cannot believe, unless we consent to admit contradic- 
tory statements ; but many of the events recorded, how- 
ever marvellous, are certainly not physically impossible. 
But I would only entreat the candid reader to reflect 
what might naturally be expected, on the supposition of 
the surmises contained in the present work being well- 
founded. Supposing the whole of the tale I have been 
considering to have been a fabrication, what would be the 



THE THIRD EDITION. 



39 



natural result of such an attempt to excite inquiry into its 
truth ? Evidently the shortest and most effectual mode 
of eluding detection would be to kill the phantom, and 
so get rid of him at once. A ready and decisive answer 
would thus be provided to any one in whom the foregoing 
arguments might have excited suspicions : " Sir, there 
can be no doubt such a person existed, and performed 
what is related of him ; and if you will just take a voy- 
age to St. Helena, you may see with your own eyes, — 
not him indeed, for he is no longer living, — but his 
tomb : and what evidence would you have that is more 
decisive ? " 

So much for his Death : as for his Life, — it is just 
published by an eminent writer : besides which, the shops 
will supply us with abundance of busts and prints of this 
great man ; all striking likenesses — of one another. The 
most incredulous must be satisfied with this ! " Stat 
magni NOMINIS umbra ! " 

KONX OxMPAX. 



FINIS. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



019 644 516 A 




